The Stray Cats are one of my favorite bands, and having the bass player for the closing show is killer. Of all the shows this season, this is one not to miss.
The greatest rockabilly song ever written;
This is a great event for Sioux Falls, and I would like to thank Nancy Halverson from the Levitt for organizing the event. Tons of skate demonstrations, talks, art, food, and MUSIC!
I have made it about half way thru my personal review of the bands playing the Levitt this year, and the lineup is chucked full of great Blues, Ethnic, Country, Rock, Local and Contemporary. 50 SHOWS! ALL FREE! Plus Lee Rocker closes it out!
Besides our Parks and Bike Trail, the Levitt is one of the best taxpayer investments in this city! Now if they would let us bring our own beer* and ban pets**, it would be even better 🙂
*Last year an individual alcoholic beverage was $7. It will be interesting to see if that gets raised to $8 this year. While the beverage sales do help the Levitt with contributions, I think it has been overinflated. I am waiting for the financials from 2021 to see what that percentage is. Even if we allowed people to bring their own beer and wine (no liquor) they could still keep the bar and maybe even have a cooler fee you would have to pay to receive 21+ armbands.
**My biggest concern about pets has always been about the well being of the pets. The crowd and noise can cause anxiety (I’ve witnessed many close dog fights) it is often to hot and what I see the most of is them pooping and peeing all over the lawn, and I have witnessed many people walk thru it. Can people just leave their pets at home for a couple of hours without dragging them around like some trophy everywhere? Unless it is a service dog, leave them at home. PLEASE! JazzFest always had a ban on pets, and it worked great!
I got an email from a foot soldier a few weeks ago, but didn’t think much of it;
I received a mailer about something called “Shen Yun: China before Communisim”. This is a stage shown produced by the Falun Gong religious movement, who is more well known for their pro-Trump rag The Epoch Times. They are going to put on one of these Shen Yun performances at the Washington Pavilion on January 26th. I wonder if this is worthy of a blog post as a SF government organization is allowing a pro-Trump religious movement to host a show at the Pavilion.
I responded;
I get it, and would agree this is a POS show, but the Pavilion is ran by a private non-profit even if it does get subsidies from the city they can basically put on any governmental or religious show and have over the years. You also have to realize the place is ran by a person who only cares about cashing in and making money.
As I mentioned above, there is little stopping the Washington Bazillion from putting on the show, and Holy Sh!t it is expensive. I guess cults don’t get money from trees.
If you don’t know much about the Falun Dafa Cult they seem to revel in being anti-socialism, anti-gay, anti-atheist, anti-premarital sex and and anti-science all rolled into a big old barrel of monkeys. Wait, I think I just described our governor’s agenda.
Secretly I am actually thinking about going just so I can laugh at the end when the Karl Marx character ruins all the fun. But I am also NOT a fan of putting my money in a burn barrel.
I encourage anyone thinking about going to NOT go and if you already have purchased tickets to ask for a refund siting you don’t wish to support a cult. I sometimes wonder whoever is booking the shows over there even bothers to do a little research. It reminds of how they didn’t book Lucinda Williams (about a month before she won a Grammy) because they didn’t think they could fill the seats or how they canceled negotiations with Hank the III because he wouldn’t promise to do all old timey music sets.
But a Chinese cult ballet for $180 a ticket? That’s A okay.
While I understand peeps frustration in Stapleton cancelling his show last night (he really could have done it earlier in the day) I really think this could be a lesson in local economic impact. As we know, the Denty hasn’t really helped the economy in Sioux Falls that much, in fact it is a drain of over $10 million a year to taxpayers, money that could be spent on needed infrastructure instead. As I have said before, besides the little bit of tax revenue we draw from the place each year, almost 100% of the money that is spent at the facility goes straight down the highway. The promoters, management companies (beverage and food included) and the artists get the lion’s share and take it straight out of town. Very little gets recirculated in the community.
But last night, I saw something amazing in DTSF. The streets were filled with flannel wearing, boot scootin’ concert goers that were stuck in town for the night without a show to go to. They were spending the money they intended to throw away at the Denty in our town at local businesses instead of to a corporate giant.
It would be interesting to see what the sales tax boost to the city was from last night.
One of the main reasons I opposed the Denty, wasn’t because of the price tag, it was because it would not benefit local business. When people are dropping $400 per person in one night (tickets, beverages, taxi, hotel, etc.) basically in one place, they have blown their entertainment budget for several months and not spending it locally.
I remember a time around 10-15 years ago when you had oodles of options to see live music and entertainment at a host of different venues. And not just local yocals but National and Regional acts. The money spent got recirculated in our community.
Let us learn from this incident.
